Taking Care Of Your Dumb Little Brother

First off, that Quickfire Challenge. This is one of the things that, from a former contestant standpoint, I found pretty challenging. They're cooking in the dead heat of summer, which is never easy. But they all seem back in the game. Making a market entree with no cooking. It's what I've been saying all along. They're still not listening. It's a Quickfire Challenge. These are very clear rules. And Marcel was the only person who made an entree. Based on appearance -- on everything -- it was the clear winner. And everyone keeps coming down on the guy.

Marcel is young. He's arrogant. And everyone is, when they're around that age. I know I was pretty bad. It's one of things, though, that when you're good at your work, you don't need to tell everybody what you know. People that are smart and passionate and that are going to care, they're going to recognize you have skills, and they're going to figure out that they should listen to you.

So, yes, Marcel tends to sometimes kind of be running off at the mouth and telling everybody what's what. I think he's out of control somewhat. But I was glad he won. I thought his dish was well executed. Let me move on to the Elimination Challenge, because I gotta be honest, I was pretty ticked off at Frank. I know I've said that I find him funny in the past. This time I found him obnoxious, on a couple of different levels. You don't know what kind of atmosphere you're going to be cooking in. And I watched this challenge thinking: "Wow, this sucks, he's the one guy who had a game plan of what he wanted to make" -- and it was a dish that definitely needed an oven. And based on that alone, he was frustrated and kind of just wanted to go nuts.

And then little Mike forgot his eggs, and Frank is laughing at him and calling him someone's "dumb little brother." Come on, man. If he's your little brother, even your dumb little brother, then give him some eggs. It kind redeemed Betty. Watching Cliff and Betty step up and give Mikey some eggs, that was pretty cool to see. I thought that was a nice personal recovery on Betty's part.

I thought that Mia's dish was fantastic. It was my favorite of the Elimination Challenge by far. It was really creative. A crab cake with eggs. It worked out that they were down by the water, for the surfers, so she had that going for her. I was really disappointed with Sam's dish, though. He was talking about his first idea being green eggs and ham. (Sam, I am.) That dish was last year. But what is he thinking cooking basil and eggs? Basil is a very delicate herb, it's just going to turn brown on you. And Frank's was just a total disaster.

I'm still waiting on Ilan. I have a feeling about that guy. I think Ilan is really talented. Every dish he makes, though, is Spanish influenced, and I'm waiting to see something else. I hope -- for his sake -- he pulls something new out soon.

This was one of the first guest judges, by the way, who I thought was really spectacular. He was fair, I think he had good comments. I'm tired of seeing guest judges beat up on the contestants, it's in poor taste. As far as that goes, it was thankfully a pretty low-key episode. There wasn't a whole lot of crazy drama blasting out of those people.